Guilt by association in campaigns: Curran-Biden, Donnelly-Mangano

                                                                                    

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Campaigns love to link election opponents to politicians who are tanking in the polls or disliked by local voters -- even if they have no direct relationship or any apparent relationship at all.

So here we have Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat running for re-election Nov. 2 against Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman, tied to Democratic president Joe Biden, paid for by the New York State Republican committee.

Biden's approval ratings have been dropping like a stone since he took office; Gallop reported today that only 42 percent of the natonal public approve of his job performance while 52 percent disapprove. That means that Biden has the lowest approval rating of any elected president during the third quarter of their first year in office except for Trump.

But the Siena College Research Institute poll reported this week that Trump and Biden had equal approval numbers -- 42 percent -- among downstate suburban New York voters, like those who will be voting in Nassau.

Still, what does Curran have to do with Biden besides party affiliation?

Democrats are no different.

Here is a piece against Republican Anne Donnelly paid for by the Nassau Democratic committee.                                                    
                                                                                  

Donnelly, a 32-year prosecutor in the Nassau District Attorney's office, is vying against Democratic State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a former prosecutor, for the vacant district attorney's seat.

The men in the black-and-white background of the Donnelly piece are, left from right, former Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto, former County Executive Ed Mangano and former state senate majority leader Dean Skelos. All are Republicans.

Skelos served time for federal corruption; Mangano has been convicted of federal corruption but is appealing; Venditto was acquitted of federal corruption charges, but later pleaded guilty to state charges of official misconduct related to a town-development issue in return for conditional discharge of no jail and no fine. Broke after fighting the federal charges, Venditto died last year from cancer.

Donnelly spent her career in the district attorney's office, first under Denis Dillon, a Democrat turned Republican, and then Democrats, Kathleen Rice and Madeline Singas.

Her only apparent relationship to Skelos, Mangano and Venditto is party affiliation.

It's hard to believe that voters are swayed by mailers that photoshop an image of a political opponent next to unpopular politicians.

But hey, Republicans likened former Democratic Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen to New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both progressive Democrats, during her campaign for re-election in 2019. Gillen's only apparent relationship to DeBlasio and AOC was party label, but Gillen lost.

Here are recent, more typical,  anti-Blakeman and anti-Kaminsky mailers. They focus on their preferred issues, rather than associations: